For two decades I have taught literature, film, and comics in the Honors College at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I’ve been writing poetry in earnest since 2011, mostly in traditional forms. The play of English phrasing and syntax across a sturdy pentameter framework is, for me, one of life’s great pleasures. Others include dinner parties, foreign films, strong coffee, and dancing—and walking the dog with my husband, Geoff. Journals in which my poems have appeared include The Lyric, Measure, and Unsplendid.

A Passover SupperHis mother let him choose the yearling lamb.Standing in line, waiting for Temple prieststo perform the sacrifice, his head swamwith spooling blood and clumps of matted fleece.They dragged it home. He watched her drive a staveacross its shoulders, skewer down the spineto hold it steady over fire—and then lavethe naked loin and ribs in a roasting brine.Before the meal, his father told againthe story of Passover: how God sparesthe chosen, how all Egypt is condemned.He ate hastily, blinking back tearswhich welled up from an unfamiliar tension.A rush of kindness—mixed with apprehension.

​​How He Came to Speak in ParablesThe first time was a whim. Growing annoyedat his repeated failure to get through,he scanned his listless audience, and toyedwith likening the unknown to what they knew:a brother’s envy, taxes, mustard seed,the way one ploughs a field or tends a herd.Watching their rapt expressions, he perceivedhow spirits, through the senses, could be stirred. Their careworn lives made vivid, people yearnedto grasp the truth behind a homespun scene.His teaching until now had been unleavenedby that essential germ. He quickly learnedfrom all the eager talk of what things mean,how ample mystery was—like bread from heaven.

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